The Importance Of Having Your Sheep The Right Way Up…

My rather relaxing afternoon at Lowe Towers was interrupted by a hesitant knock on the door, and because years of ‘interesting’ encounters have made me re-define what counts as ‘odd’ … opening the door to a young lady who had tied her horse to one of my gateposts didn’t seem strange at all – in fact all seemed par for the course right up until she said “Excuse me – could you help me turn that sheep the right way up…?”

Now granted, it was my field, but they were my neighbour’s sheep and I will even admit that as I followed her out the sight of the poor stricken creature, flat on its back with its feet in the air led me to fear the worst…

I stared at the sheep for a minute, not knowing really what to do, and preparing to break the news to this young lady about the sheep’s unfortunate demise, when against all probability it made a plaintive bleating noise and waved one of its feet in a generally pathetic and feeble manner.

We gave the sheep a tentative push and this was all it needed to right itself and toddle off back to the rest of the flock, looking none the worst for all that happened, and as if this sort of thing happened to it every day…

So Tim, I hear you say, is the ‘moral’ of this week’s Lowedown going to be that if we feel stricken like that poor sheep, don’t fret, as we’re probably just a little push away from being ‘righted’ and back on track?

Well, yes, that would have been rather good – but as you know that already, what I’ll do instead is continue the tale slightly to encompass events a few days later … so you can raise a smile as I was put in a very sheep-like predicament myself.

I was sat in the Sauna at the Gym, and decided to lean back slightly – which was fine apart from the fact that as the space involved wasn’t quite wide enough for a healthy and robust character such as myself – and I kind of ‘popped’ into the space rather snugly and came to rest with my right arm tucked in behind one of the sides.

Naturally, I enjoyed my sauna – but as my thoughts turned to leaving I discovered that with my arm tucked where it was … I was going nowhere. The sensible thing to do would, of course, have been to attract the attention of others and ask them for a hand – but all that was going through my mind was that poor sheep with its pathetic bleating and feeble waving – so I spent a very long time performing a very undignified wriggle to eventually free myself.

So yes, all you do need at times is a little push to get you going, but often there is something in your head that stops you from asking for help. The important factor is that you don’t make that thing any bigger than it really is, or that it is even relevant to exactly what you’re trying to do now.

You might have had negative experiences in the past – we all have – but if that negative experience was based around you not being the greatest salesperson or only having ten minutes to spare when you needed an hour … what you need to ask yourself is – are those things a factor here … and if not – what’s stopping you ?